


Too Little Too Late

by EdgarAllenPoet



Series: Dads of Marmora [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, I listened to 'you'll be in my heart' on repeat while writing this, Kid Fic, Kid Keith (Voltron), Kid pidge (voltron), Kolivan gets to babysit, Nightmares, Team as Family, dads of marmora, preschoolers in space, so that gives you a pretty good idea of what you're getting into here, teaching toddlers to fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 05:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12005997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdgarAllenPoet/pseuds/EdgarAllenPoet
Summary: "That was where Kolivan found Keith, spacesuit big enough to pool around his feet and flap over his hands, both of which were curled tightly around a sword as he stood in front of Pidge like the fiercest little warrior Kolivan had ever seen."





	Too Little Too Late

**Author's Note:**

> Dads of Marmora treating the paladins like kids is a common theme here... I think we all knew it was going here eventually.

Kolivan could now hold Pidge in the palm of his hand.  If you’d told Kolivan a few quintents ago that the two smallest paladins would get even tinier, he wouldn’t have believed you.  As it was, Kolivan currently had his hands rather full- one hand literally, holding Pidge above his head and making the toddler giggle hysterically.  He was the leader of the Blade of Marmora.  He’d spent decaphebes perfecting his leadership, combat, and espionage, and plotting the downfall of the Galra Empire. 

 

Now he was crouching on the floor of what the paladins called the “living room” (as if every room in the castle was not intended for “living”.... These human’s euphemisms continued to baffle him) holding one squealing paladin above his head and trying to coax the other out from under a piece of furniture.

 

“Keith, desist and come out this instant,” he ordered, careful not to shout.  They’d discovered quickly that raised voices were incredibly counterproductive when dealing with the young red paladin.  

 

Keith met Kolivan with a vicious glare, pulled his lip back, and snarled.

 

Well, at least the galra-esque behavior was familiar.  Not that Kolivan had much experience with children, but even tiny similarities felt like comforts in such a foreign situation. 

 

“You cannot stay down there forever,” Kolivan reminded, taking Pidge and settling her on his shoulder.  She wrapped one chubby hand around his brade and the other around his ear, and Kolivan didn’t mind so much as long as she didn’t fall off.  It wasn’t like her grip was strong, and human cubs apparently did not have claws.

 

“Yes I can!” Keith shouted back, voice the tiniest squeak compared to its usual depth.  Kolivan sighed and rubbed his head.  He’d been alone with them for fifteen minutes, and he already had a headache.

 

In a fit of perfect timing, the door to the “living room” whooshed open just as Keith was scooting farther under the table to hide. 

 

“Sorry!” Lance burst out, speeding into the room like the hallway was on fire.  “Sorry, Coran caught me in the hallway and started talking about-” The boy’s mouth snapped shut and he stopped mid-step as something apparently caught his attention.  Kolivan stared back patiently. Pidge tugged at his ear. 

 

“Why are you on the floor?” Lance asked.  “Where’s Keith?” 

 

The answer was pretty obvious, and Hunk seemed to agree.  He followed Lance into the room at a much more relaxed pace and walked right past him towards Kolivan.  “Three guesses,” he said to his friend, though Kolivan didn’t have the slightest idea what that was supposed to mean.  He rose to his feet and got out of the way, dislodging Pidge from his shoulder and handing her over to Lance while Hunk laid belly down on the floor and peeked at Keith under the table. 

 

Keith responded best to Shiro, but he responded almost as well to Hunk, which was something else Kolivan failed to understand.  Besides those two, everyone on the ship was met with an air of distrust. 

 

It wasn’t the same quiet caution that grown Keith carried with him everywhere, but a blatant, fiery panic that bubbled out of him when anyone he didn’t like came to close.  For the time being, that meant anyone but Shiro and Hunk.  Occasionally Coran could startle a giggle out of the child, and once so far he’d convinced Keith to hold his hand while they walked from the kitchen to the restroom.  Besides that, nobody could get within arms length of the cub.  For Kolivan that was nothing less than frustrating. 

 

Antok was keeping his distance.  He didn’t like children, had never felt at ease around them. 

 

“They are so tiny,” he’d said when Kolivan found him hiding away in the training room.  “What if I smush them?”

 

Surprising as it was to hear Antok use a word like “smush,” he didn’t push the topic any further.  He just stayed on the edges of the situation and offered a hand where it seemed to be needed.  Today that meant babysitting so Lance could take a bathroom break and grab Hunk for babysitting back up. 

 

“There we go,” Hunk said as he heaved Keith up onto his hip and stood slowly.  Keith clutched onto him, tiny hands curled tightly around the fabric of Hunk’s shirt, face half hidden against his neck, one suspicious eye fixed solidly on Kolivan. 

 

He looked away when Pidge made a noise, a high pitched squeal accompanied with waving arms, one of which flew awry and smacked Lance in the eye.  Lance hissed in a breath through his teeth, but it quickly dissolved into a chuckle as Pidge made grabbing motions at Kolivan and spoke.  “Up!” she said, hands grabbing at the air.  “Koli, up!” 

 

He couldn’t remember exactly how old they said she was.  Coran had given the measurement in Altean, and Hunk (math genius that he was) had figured out a pretty accurate Earth translation.  But he’d thrown a lot of numbers around, something about  _ months _ and  _ years _ and  _ toddlers _ and  _ ought to be in preschool _ .  Basically, they were discussing this entire problem with a vocabulary Kolivan didn’t understand and the translators weren’t helping with, so he just sat back at a loss and handled things as they came. 

 

He took Pidge when Lance held her out at arms length, acting as gently as he could manage when his clawed hands were as big as her entire form.  She just giggled and clambered up onto his shoulders when she was close enough, and he kept a hand behind his head to keep her from toppling off backwards.

 

So tiny Pidge had the same behaviors as normal Pidge, at least.  He wished they could say the same thing for Keith. 

 

The worst part about the whole thing was that they didn’t know how it happened.  They had energy samples and eyewitness explanations, they had computers running analyses and medical charts of information.  They had healing pods that did nothing to change the tiny paladins back, and they had runny noses and emotional outbursts and no idea what was going on or how to change them back. 

 

Coran was running scans.  He’d heard legends of this supposedly, back in the day, but he’d never encountered it first hand.  The question on everyone’s mind was one Kolivan couldn’t answer, but it was one he should have been able to answer.  He’d been there when the whole thing went down.

 

They were checking in on an ages old distress signal from a volcanic planet on the edge of the D41 galaxy.  They needed Red to manuever the dangerous temperatures of the planet, and Pidge had designed suits that were tough enough to make contact with lava without bursting into flames or broiling them alive. 

 

Hunk and Lance were checking in on one of their allies.  Shiro was keeping Coran and Allura company on the castle, and Antok was back at the Blade of Marmora head quarters doing a check-in. 

 

They had time to spare and errands to run, so at least they’d chosen a good time for an accident.  

 

Kolivan never should have let them explore that inactive volcano. 

 

He hadn’t seen it happen, which was the worst part, considering that was the information everyone wanted to know.  Red trusted Kolivan enough to idle off ground with him in the cockpit while Pidge and Keith explored on foot.  Everything was on track and quiet for a good amount of time, long enough that Kolivan started to relax.

 

Then the coms had burst to life with the sounds of explosions, and Pidge’s voice rang out screaming “Keith! No!”  

 

“Pidge!  What’s happening!?” Kolivan had demanded, but then Red reeled back and launched herself towards the surface, and Kolivan was thrown like a ragdoll through the cockpit.

 

Kolivan could report all the events after that, but the most important question remained unanswered.  He could tell how the explosion set off the long sleeping volcano, causing the entire unoccupied planet to burst into flames.  He could tell how Red had dived head first into a pool of lava, how she’d rammed down the door that had melted shut, and how she’d crouched under a newly formed lava waterfall while Kolivan sprinted into the blaze.  He could report finding Keith, spacesuit big enough to pool around his feet and flap over his hands, both of which were curled tightly around a sword as he stood in front of Pidge like the fiercest little warrior Kolivan had ever seen. 

 

Kolivan felt bad for having to knock the kid out, pinching a nerve in his neck and catching him before he hit the ground.  He could report cradling both tiny paladins in his lap while Red flown them back to the castle, but he couldn’t tell them how it all happened. 

 

The healing pods did nothing more than clean up minor injuries- a skinned knee, a bruise from the nerve pinch- but it did nothing to change the state of the paladins, size or otherwise.  

 

So they were working around the clock.  Shiro had a shaky understanding of the altean language and a pretty solid grasp on Galran, so he, Coran, and Allura spent their time studying streams of data and ancient records.  Hunk stepped in to help with the data from time to time, but both he and Shiro had to take breaks to go on babysitting duty since they were the only ones Keith allowed near him. 

 

Lance had committed himself to full time kid duty, and there was something shining in his eyes that Kolivan hadn’t seen.  At least someone was getting joy out of this bizarre disaster, he supposed.  He’d never seen the blue paladin appear so light. 

 

Antok was staying on the sidelines, helping with analysis where he could but fundamentally staying out of the way.  He and Kolivan weren’t well versed in Altean and weren’t designed to be scholars.  There wasn’t a lot for them to do. 

 

But that was fine.  Kolivan could play his role in this, could hold tiny paladins on his shoulders and let them pull on his ears.  He could watch as the other’s eyes lit up and marvel at the youth that shone through the faces of battle hardened soldiers.  He could reassure them, again and again, that this would all turn out fine, and watching the four youngest paladins interact, he could almost make himself believe it. 

  
  


…

  
  


Four days came and went, and not a lot had changed.  Having children aboard the castle was still uncomfortable, but as the days passed it almost started to feel routine.  It helped that the presence of young ones made the other paladins kick away their bad habits.  They started having meals on a regular schedule and going to sleep at a decent time.  They stepped back from saving the world and caught a much needed break hiding at the edges of the galaxy, and unlike normal, they didn’t spend every second of their free time killing themselves in training. 

 

Kolivan believed in vigilant training and hard work, but he also believed in everything in moderation.  It was nice to see them all be forced to accept that. 

 

Or, at least, they  _ mostly  _ accepted it.  Pidge was an easy cub to care for so long as she was kept entertained.  She was endlessly curious, but that lead to a tendency to take things apart and stick them in her mouth.  She was small enough that actions like getting off the couch or climbing onto the counters took long enough for them to catch her before she could fall.  She liked things that lit up and would squeal with glee when Hunk and Lance sang to her.  Kolivan had even taught her a Galra lullabye from his youth, a song he hadn’t known he remembered until he was singing it to the tiny one.  She picked it up quickly and spent the rest of the day humming it as she went about her business, which wasn’t much of anything, but she embraced it like it was the most serious work in the world.

 

Keith was a little harder to care for.  For one, he was older

 

- _ ”I’m this many,” he said when Lance asked him, holding his hand out, thumb tucked in and fingers splayed wide.  “Four’n a half.”  He quickly wrapped his arms back around Shiro’s leg after answering and hid his face against Shiro’s hip.  Shiro settled his hand on the top of Keith’s head and acted as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.   _

 

_ Lance had beamed like the stars themselves had spoken to him- _

 

His advanced age gave him an advantage in moving around, and he didn’t teeter the way Pidge did when he moved.  He could walk, run, and climb, and he would at any opportunity he got.  He was quiet and temperamental, prone to both verbal and physical outbursts.

 

He’d gotten angry at a mealtime and thrown his spoon at Allura, who’d been telling him an Altean anecdote about children who didn’t eat their dinner.  If Allura didn’t have the reflexes of someone trained extensively in combat, the spoon would have hit her smack in the face.  

 

Shiro responded before anyone else could, scooping Keith out of his chair and carrying him off into the hallway, where he somehow convinced Keith to offer Allura a mumbled apology and finish his food without further trouble. 

 

“You used to have a temper like that when you were an ankle biter,” Coran had said to Allura, who did not seem amused by any of the evening’s events.

 

So outbursts happened on occasion, and Keith still fell to pieces if anyone but Shiro and Hunk got too close to him too quickly.  Bedtime was difficult for the little paladin who hadn’t spent much time sleeping in his grown form anyways, but all in all, Keith wasn’t more trouble than he was worth. 

 

It wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, and besides, Coran was getting close to a breakthrough.  

 

He exclaimed so on day five, when he’d kicked Shiro out of his work space so he could  _ “have enough air to think properly, if you don’t mind _ ,  _ number one.” _  Kolivan wasn’t sure how it happened with  _ more _ of them watching the cubs, but Keith managed to slip away silently, and it took a good amount of time for any of them to notice. 

 

“Wait,” Lance had said, shattering the silence and sitting up quickly, clutching a still napping Pidge to his chest and looking around with wide eyes.  “Where the heck is Keith?” 

 

They split up, everyone different section of the castle and spanning out.  Shiro took Pidge with him, because the last thing they wanted to do was let another cub out of eyesight.   They set off to look, in the command room and the kitchen and the great hall and the bedrooms, but Kolivan’s intuition pulled him a different direction.  His first stop to check was the training room.

 

Earlier that morning Hunk and Lance had a go at it, tumbling around the mat in a playful sparring session to blow off some steam.  Shiro had held Pidge on one hip and Keith on the other and let them watch through the window for a while, until the training bot descended from the ceiling.  

 

“Can I go play too?” Keith had asked, eyes laser focused on his teammates.  

 

Shiro shook his head and said, “No, not yet.  When you’re big again.” 

 

Kolivan had thought that would be enough.  Keith was good about listening to Shiro, child-sized or otherwise.  Regardless, his intuition was spot on.  Kolivan reached the door of the training room just in time to hear an ear-splitting scream. 

 

Kolivan slammed his hand on the entry pad and the door whizzed open, and there was Keith, scrambling across the training deck, Blade clutched in hand, pursued by the training bot.  He ran straight for the corner, which was not something grown Keith would have done.  Realizing his mistake too late, he spun on heel and held his Blade out in front of him in both hands, and that was when Kolivan reached him. 

 

In one fell swoop he knocked the bot across the room and snatched the Blade out of Keith’s hands.  The bot hit the wall and then the floor with a tell-tale  _ crack! _  Kolivan watched the light go out of it’s eyes before turning his attention back to the tiny paladin in front of him. 

 

Keith was shaking from head to toe, hands held up in front of him in fists, wide eyes focused directly on Kolivan and breath coming out in panicked little puffs.  Kolivan regarded the child in front of him for a long moment and looked over the Blade in his hand before making up his mind.  He turned the knife so that the sharp end was pointed away from Keith before stooping down in front of him.  Even in a crouch he was still a good deal taller than the four year old, but he hoped the distance was less looming. 

 

Keith didn’t stop shaking, but besides the trembles, he didn’t move at all. 

 

“Are you hurt?” Kolivan asked him, and he was surprised of an answer, Keith responded with a bit lip and eyes welling with tears.   He drew in closer to himself, fists curling tighter, and Kolivan realized all at once what was going on.  Keith’s body language was scared, not of the training bot (not anymore), but of Kolivan. 

 

Yes, of course.  ‘Stranger danger,’ as Lance had told him.  Well then.  

 

Kolivan rocked back on his heels, folded his legs under him, and sat down.  ‘Criss cross tabasco sauce.’  Lance had said that too.  Keith frowned at that, eyebrows furrowing but eyes never leaving Kolivan.  Kolivan offered him a smile. 

 

“You are not in trouble,” he reassured, even though Keith probably should have been.  Sneaking away, disobeying Shiro, activating a training bot, and almost getting himself maimed were not small offenses, but then again Keith wouldn’t have done any of it if they had been watching him properly.  “Tell me, little warrior.  Does anything hurt?” 

 

Keith blinked a few times, causing a single tear rolling down his chubby cheek as he shook his head.  “No…” he mumbled, hand pressed against his mouth, teeth chewing nervously at the skin. 

 

“You got bored in the living room, I suppose?” Kolivan offered, looking the cub over with a cocked head.  Keith was shaking less than before, but his gaze still held mistrust.  He studied Kolivan for several seconds before nodding meekly.  

 

“Yes….” 

 

“You want to learn how to fight?” Kolivan asked.  That earned him another nod. 

 

“You want me to teach you?” He held Keith’s Blade out to him, unactivated and still in the form of a dagger, the perfect size for tiny hands.  Keith took it and offered something up of his own- the tiniest hint of a smile. 

 

That was how the others found them later.  A battered training staff left abandoned on the floor with Keith’s Blade, the two of them rolling around on the training mat in a mock wrestling match.  Kolivan was putting more energy into keeping Keith safe than actually wrestling, but Keith gave it his all, fighting his giant opponent with everything in him, the same way he did on the battlefield.

 

When he took a flying leap off Kolivan’s chest, Kolivan caught him carefully with one hand and pinned him to the mat, his massive hand acting like a cage.  The tiny paladin’s shirt had ridden up to his armpits.  Kolivan darted in and blew a raspberry on Keith’s belly, and the little creature absolutely lost it in a fit of squeals and screams. 

 

“Man, I wish we had this on video,” Lance said from the doorway.  He was Pidge’s handler this time.  The little one was wrapped around Lance’s ankle like a python, and he barely seemed to notice her presence at all. 

 

“Why is there a training bot out?” Shiro asked, frowning at the disabled droid that laid inactive where Kolivan had kicked it. 

 

Keith kicked his little legs around and picked his head up.  “Kolivan is teaching me to fight!” he exclaimed, eyes wild with excitement.  Kolivan shrugged at them apologetically and picked himself up off the floor, taking hold of the back of Keith’s t-shirt and swinging him up onto his shoulder as he went. 

 

“He is already a natural,” Kolivan said, as if there was any reason he wouldn’t be.  That was alright.  It was worth it to see Keith beam in response.

  
  


…

  
  
  


Keith’s hand was the size of Kolivan’s nose.  He weighed next to nothing and let out the tiniest little breaths as he slept.  Seven quintants into this debacle and he let three people get close to him: Shiro, Hunk, and Kolivan.

 

Kolivan hadn’t been expecting that.  He let Shiro put Keith to bed as normal, and he retired to his own room not long afterwards.  It was only a few vargas later when light flooded into the room from the opened doorway, and tiny hands were tapping timidly at his shoulder. 

 

He’d blinked his eyes open and squinted down at whatever was disturbing him, only to find Keith.  His big eyes glowed in the dark, his cheeks were shining suspiciously, and he sniffled on every other breath.

 

“What is it?” Kolivan asked him.  “Is something wrong?” 

 

Keith answered him in a voice that was tinier than Kolivan imagined possible.  “I had a bad dream…” he whispered.  “I’m scared.”

 

Grown Keith would never admit something like that- none of the paladins would have.  It was no secret that the Voltron team was plagued in their sleep, reliving horrors they were too young to witness, creative human minds fabricating their own.  Even children dreamed, apparently.  Kolivan hadn’t thought to consider that. 

 

Even so, it was almost second nature to sit up and invite the cub up onto his bed. 

 

“Come here,” he’d soothed.  “Be at peace.” 

 

More surprising than the wake up call itself, Keith clambered onto the bed and into Kolivan’s lap with just those few words of encouragement.  He tucked himself in against Kolivan, too little to be real, and Kolivan wrapped him up tight.  He pulled Keith into his arms, cradling him against his chest and letting Keith tuck his head under Kolivan’s chin. 

 

It wasn’t long before the sniffling ceased and Keith’s breathing began to slow.  He wasn’t asleep, but he was near it, and so was Kolivan. That was his excuse for what he did next. 

 

Keith didn’t seem to mind the tongue running over his hair.  If anything, he relaxed into the grooming like a natural Galra cub.  His hands curled into the fabric of Kolivan’s shirt, and he mewled quietly before relaxing entirely.  

 

Asleep, finally.  Kolivan pulled the blanket over the both of them and settled back, letting his own eyes slip shut as the steady cadence of Keith’s breathing lulled him back to sleep.

  
  
  


…

  
  


_ “This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life….”  _

 

_ “Hunk, quiet!  You don’t want to wake them before I take the picture.”  _

 

_ “You already took a picture.”  _

 

_ “I haven’t taken nearly enough.  This is priceless.”  _

 

_ “Keith is going to kill you when we get him back to normal.”  _

 

_ “Worth it, buddy.  Totally worth it.”  _

**Author's Note:**

> I still have no idea what the timeline in this series is. We'll probably have some season three stuff going on soon, because there wasn't enough BOM in the new season and the paladins could really use some guidance about now.....
> 
> Any other ideas? Hit me up.


End file.
